Fall of Heroes (12 page)

She paused for a moment, as if waiting for an unseen audience to take in this information. In the living room, there was barely the sound of breath.

“No, no, no . . . ,” Lone Star repeated. His hands were shaking.

The camera zoomed out as Novo aimed the gun at a mannequin onscreen. She fired. There was a low, resounding electronic sound. An inky black splotch grew over the mannequin's chest, until it covered the figure completely. Then, suddenly, it was gone—melted away.

Alex just stared at the television. Again, it was a performance meant only for them. To show them they'd been outsmarted. If Cloak and the Guild of Daggers had managed to synthesize Phantom's energy—and from the demonstration it seemed that was
exactly
what they'd done—what would keep them from creating
countless
weapons? They wouldn't even have to stop at Umbra Guns. They could have bombs, missiles—weapons that could send entire cities into the Gloom.

Novo stared straight into the camera.

“Turn yourselves in, and we will show you the mercy of justice. But if you force us to hunt you down—if you endanger the lives of countless civilians in your selfish attempts to defeat us, we promise you that you will know true fear.” She paused, and Alex was sure he could detect a twitch of a smile as she added, “And gloom.”

12
OVERHEARD

“C
arla, Lux,” Lone Star said, “we need to speak in private. The rest of the team stays up here for now.”

“There's the office over here,” Carla said. Then, after thinking about it for a beat: “Or we can go down to the basement. It might be a bit more private.”

“No offense,
sir
,” Alex said, “but you can't call us your teammates if you're going to shut us out of whatever you're planning to do next.”

“I understand your concerns.”

“If you really understood, we wouldn't have shown up to the groundbreaking like we did today,” Mallory said.

“They did try to warn us, Star,” Lux said.

“We did what we thought was best. You know that, Lux.”

Carla raised an eyebrow and turned to her brother. Lux frowned, but nodded. She turned to Alex and Kirbie and the others. “Just give us ten minutes to talk and we'll be back. We won't do anything without consulting with you all first.”

And with that, the three adults were gone.

“This is ridiculous,” Mallory said. “They've only been out of the Gloom for a day. There are months—
years
of background they need to know.”

“Lone Star said to trust him and—,” Kyle said.

“No,” Amp said, getting to his feet. “Mallory's right. They may look at us as their junior team still, but we know way more about what's happening right now than they do.” He made a beeline for the basement door in the hallway.

“They're not going to be happy if they find out we've been spying on them.”

“We shouldn't
have
to be spying,” Alex countered as the others followed Amp down the hall.

“Shhhh,” Amp said. “Everyone just shut up and let me do my thing. I need to concentrate.”

He placed his left hand on the door to the basement and held his right palm out toward the others. Voices from downstairs started to pour out of him, amplified.

“How bad is this, really?” Lone Star asked. “How are things looking from inside the government? Isn't there anyone opposing the Rangers' growing control?”

“In your entire tenure as a Ranger, did anyone
ever
come out and say they didn't want you protecting the city?” Carla asked. “There are people against giving the Rangers so much power, sure, but they're in the minority. And it's not exactly an open topic of conversation. You get around enough people who are die-hard in favor of every suggestion and decree the Rangers are making and you start to feel like maybe they're right.”

“It's herd mentality,” Lux said. “They've got enough implants in the system to sway anyone who might be on the fence.”

“Wait . . . who
heard
what?” Misty asked on the first floor.

“No,
herd
,” Alex said. “Like you'd herd sheep or cows or something.”

“Cloak's like a virus,” Kyle whispered. “It just keeps spreading.”

Carla started talking again.

“What's their end goal? To take over the city? The country? World domination?”

“All of the above,” Lone Star said. “Maybe even more.”

“Don't you have other superhero friends or something you can call in as backup?” Carla asked.

“No one who could take on Cloak. And I wouldn't be surprised if half the ‘heroes' we know about are now running around the city as Deputies. We don't want to risk giving ourselves away.”

“Ah. Now there's something that's
not
going in their favor. All these ‘Deputies of Justice' suddenly have rank over the
actual
police. I've been in contact with the commissioner. We haven't spoken directly about the situation, but I can tell he's not pleased with the way things are going. Neither are his men. If we had to, we could probably get some sort of police presence to back you.”

“That's something that could totally help us,” Kyle said.

“It would certainly look good if we had the police on our side,” Gage agreed, adjusting his sling with a scowl. “We could use some kind of government agency backing us.”

Alex nodded. He didn't want to put the police in harm's way actually fighting Cloak, but there was surely some way that they could help him and the others out.
If
they could get the police on their side.

“What about the National Guard or FBI?” Lux asked. “Where are they?”

“They were here after Justice Tower fell,” Carla said. “
Everyone
was here. But when Dr. Photon showed up with his new teammates, suddenly all the agencies backed off. I think they thought it was a lucky break. No one was sure whose jurisdiction the Rangers and Cloak fell under to begin with. It's not like any of them were trained to deal with supervillains. That's always been
your
job.”

Alex could imagine the High Council congratulating one another upon hearing this statement. Their theories had been right. The Rangers
had
made the city weak in some ways. With them out of the equation, it had been so easy for Cloak to swoop in and take over.

Carla continued.

“Give it to me straight: if it came down to a fight, would you two be able to defeat Cloak and the New Rangers together?”

“Just the two of us against all of Cloak?” Lone Star asked. “There's no way we could take them on. Not like we are now.”

“But we've got the Junior Rangers and the Cloak defects on our side, too,” Lux offered.

“They're
children
,” Carla said. “I have two of my own their age. I don't care what kind of powers they have or what they've been through to get here. They shouldn't be put in danger. I've
never
approved of your use of children as soldiers.”

“They're our
teammates
,” Lone Star said.

“I'm surprised they made it this far alive. In fact, I can't believe someone didn't step in and stop you the first time you unveiled Amp as your sidekick, much less formed an entire
team
of underage superheroes.”

“Their actions have saved countless lives.”

“And the others? The ones who were trained to murder and become, what, twelve-year-old dictators? You do realize that one of them killed their former teammate today. I imagine you won't be so quick to defend them when it's
you
they've turned on.”

Misty and Mallory shifted on their feet uncomfortably. Alex didn't breathe. He felt like he'd been punched in the stomach. Kirbie looked at him and shook her head to try to dispel the words from sinking in, but it was too late.

“We kind of saved her brother's life,” Misty whispered. “
Starla
should be thanking us.”

“I
trust
them,” Lone Star said. “Every one of them. If you had any idea what they've been through the last month, you would too.”

“STOP IT!” Lux shouted. “Both of you. There's a group of psychopaths posing as both the good guys and the bad guys right now. They've got the city in a vise. They have
at least
one Umbra Gun and claim to be able to make more. Now what are we going to do about it?”

There was silence for a few moments. In the first-floor hallway, everyone was growing restless.

Lone Star's voice started to drift out of Amp's hand again.

“The city has turned on us. We don't have any powers. Maybe . . . maybe it's time we start thinking about turning ourselves in.”

“What?” Lux asked.

“Victor . . . ,” Carla said.

“Maybe they'll even just take me,” he continued. “Then they'll have a full set of Rangers. I'm powerless. It's not like I'll do them much good other than speaking engagements and propaganda. It could buy you all some time.”

“He's lost it,” Kirbie whispered.

But Alex didn't think that was the case. It wasn't so much giving up as it was desperation. He'd wondered plenty of times if handing himself over to his parents might help to save his friends and teammates. There was something very familiar to him about Lone Star's hopelessness.

“There has to be another way,” Lux said.

“We can't fight them,” Lone Star said. “I won't watch any of those kids get banished to the Gloom. Or killed. I don't even know which is worse. You heard what Novo said. You know what's coming next, right? They'll wage a fake war between Cloak and the Rangers. They'll tear down this city to find us. This might be the only way we can protect people from being harmed.”

Huddled in the hallway, Alex and his teammates listened grimly. None of them spoke, but Kirbie walked away, back into the living room, where she paced back and forth. She disappeared for a few moments before returning, holding Alex's trench coat.

“The Gloom Key was at the lake house, right?” she asked.

“It was,” Gage said. “I can't say if it still is.”

“We need that device. If they have a real Umbra Gun, we need a way into the Gloom.”

“But Phantom's energy left our bodies,” Mallory said. “Does the key even work anymore?”

“Gage, is there a
chance
the Gloom Key still works?” Kirbie asked.

“Of course,” Gage said. “There's always a chance.”

Kirbie turned to Alex. “Do you trust me?”

“Of course I do,” Alex said, without having to think about the question at all.

“Good. Then let's go.”

“My mother knows we're a threat now. She'll probably torture Photon until she's pulled every secret from his head. Cloak might already know about the lake house.”

“Are you trying to talk me out of this?” Kirbie asked.

“No,” Alex said. “I just want you to know what we're getting into.”

“Kirbie, no,” Kyle said.

“Lone Star might have given up, but I haven't.” Kirbie headed toward the back door. “It's night, the city's under lockdown, and Misty can't travel to and from the lake house in one trip. I can carry Alex. We'll grab the Gloom Key and get out of there.”

Before anyone could talk her out of it, Kirbie was in the backyard, with her eyes to the sky.

“There's even plenty of cloud cover.”

“This could be a trap,” Kyle said as he and the others followed her outside. “They could be waiting for you there.”

“I doubt it,” Alex said. “Cloak's furious. They'll want action. Even if they've already found the place, they wouldn't sit around waiting for us. They wouldn't even know how recently we used it as a base. We could have moved on weeks ago.”

“Wait,” Amp said, stepping forward. His voice was stern, authoritative. He tossed something to Alex. A communicator.

“Notify us the second anything goes weird,” he said as Alex slipped the device over his ear. “And get back as soon as you can.”

“Don't worry,” Kirbie said. “I've been taken prisoner by Cloak twice. It's not going to happen again.”

“Here.” Gage fished around in his coat pockets before pulling out the device he'd used to track Lone Star in the Gloom. He tapped on it a little clumsily, bracing it against the side of his sling. “I've set it to detect heat signatures, so you're not going in there blind. You should be able to use it once you get within two hundred yards or so of the base.”

“Thanks, Gage.”

“Maps, notes, blueprints,” Amp said. “Whatever you can grab that might help us. And then you're out of there.”

“Laser pistols. Gassers. Really anything from the garage would be great,” Gage added.

“It's dangerous,” Kyle said.

“This is something we can actually do,” Kirbie said. “If we're turning ourselves in, what's the difference anyway? Do you want to become one of Shade's brainwashed puppets? I won't. I've had her in my head once, and I won't let it happen again. I'm going to fight this until my last breath.”

“Just be careful, Kirbs.” Kyle offered a small smile. “I can't believe you're going to leave us to deal with telling Lone Star and Lux. You'd better go now, before they realize what's happening.”

And with that, she was a golden bird, huge and majestic, her talons around Alex's shoulders as they flew into the night.

13
BLACKOUT

T
hey stayed above the seemingly endless quilt of dense gray clouds as they soared across the city. At first Alex had trouble breathing normally, but he soon got the hang of it. He couldn't help but let all his anxieties and fears float away, into the night air that chapped his lips and kept his eyes half-squinted. Every so often the cover would break, and suddenly he had stunning views of places in Sterling City he'd never seen before. He wondered how Kirbie ever managed to stay on the ground when she could have views like this all the time.

It took them almost half an hour to get to Silver Lake, the northernmost neighborhood in the city. When they got close, Kirbie let out a shrill call and they began to descend. Alex whipped out the device Gage had given him, scanning the area around them.

“I'm not getting anything on thermal yet,” he shouted so Kirbie could hear. Then, taking a closer look at the screen, he squinted in confusion. “Wait, that can't be right. . . .”

Before he could investigate further, they were flying through the clouds, the thick, damp air filling his lungs. And when they finally emerged into the open, he saw that the device hadn't been malfunctioning. Far ahead of them were the house and garage on Silver Lake. Or at least, it was the place where these buildings
had
been. Now there was nothing but embers and thick black smoke.

Kirbie let out another call, breaking Alex's stunned silence. He looked back and forth between the ground and the device in his hands.

“I'm not seeing anyone,” he said. “Just the burning buildings.”

Still, Kirbie circled the site a few times before landing near the edge of the water, where the dock had jutted out into the private cove. Now the dock was gone, leaving a few splintered boards behind. Half the water was still frozen over from the day before, the other half a slushy, melted mess.

“I didn't see anyone either,” Kirbie said after she morphed back into her human form and started making her way up the sloping bank. Thick curls of black smoke swirled upward all around them as Alex followed. They passed the propeller from the boat that had been sitting in the garage the last time Alex had seen it. Now it was wedged into a tree a dozen yards away. He recognized the destruction that Barrage's powers could cause. A mixture of fire and pressure and explosive force that broke apart everything it touched.

The garage had been leveled. It was nothing but a pile of debris smoking on top of a black foundation. Alex's thoughts tore over the scorched pieces of wood and metal and concrete, picking through the destroyed building and sending embers and ash flying. His face and hands stung as tiny bits of orange rested on them, fading to dark gray smudges. In a few moments he'd dismantled the shell of the garage that remained and began sifting through the ruined tools and equipment, the items darting in front of his face as fast as his brain could latch on to them. Kirbie stayed back, watching as the items flew like mangled metal birds through the air before her.

Minutes ticked by as Alex continued, growing more frustrated, focusing more intensely, until in one wave of thought he sent all the refuse in the air flying backward and deep into the wooded area behind the garage. He started in on what remained on the ground, sifting and searching and plowing through the brittle, seared matter until finally he found it. The Gloom Key, with the huge Excelsior diamond mounted on top. Half a plastic cooler was melted around it. He smiled.

And then he turned the device over with his thoughts. The containment unit that had held Phantom's dark energy was punctured. Empty.

The Gloom Key was useless.

“Of course . . . ,” Kirbie said, stepping up beside Alex.

“We didn't even get a chance to see if it would still work now that Phantom's gone,” he whispered.

Alex furrowed his eyebrows together and concentrated. The Excelsior diamond flew out of its mounting and hovered in front of them. He let the rest of the device fall to the ground. It was useless now. The diamond lit up as it reflected the small fires and embers surrounding them. Not long ago, he would have given anything to have the Excelsior. It had been his primary target on his first mission, back when everything seemed so easy, so black and white.
Get into the vault. Steal the diamond. Prove your worth. Make your parents proud.

“If I'd known how much trouble this thing was going to cause . . . ,” Alex trailed off, staring at the jewel.

“What?” Kirbie asked. “You would have done things differently?”

“Not everything.”

Kirbie turned to the place where the house had stood. There was less remaining of it than the garage. Alex took the communicator and radioed back to Amp, telling him that the Gloom Key was a dead end and that they'd be back soon.

“They know about the underground tunnel now,” Kirbie said. “If they know about this place, they know about it, too. They know about everything.”

“Not Carla's. We're still safe there.”

“For now.”

“We could just fly away,” Alex said. Kirbie turned and stared at him. He wasn't even sure where those words had come from, just that at that moment all he wanted to do was leave, to put everything behind them.

“I know,” he continued. “We can't.”

“Why not?” she asked.

Alex shrugged. He didn't think she was actually looking for an answer. She'd never run away. She'd brought them all the way out here in the name of fighting until the end, after all.

“I don't know,” Alex said. “Because it's not the right thing to do.”

“Congratulations, Alex Knight,” she said. “You're a superhero. I was right about you all along.”

“Yeah. And look what you got for trying to talk sense into your enemy.”

“Where would we go?” she asked. “What would we do if we weren't trying to save the world?”

“I don't know,” Alex said. “What do normal kids do? Go to school? Take math tests?”

“Play sports. Perform in musicals. Get detention.”

“Oh, I've had detention. I had to be a moving target for the others while they were shooting paintballs at me.”

“Oh yeah?” She gave a small smile. “Once I snuck out of Justice Tower for a flight. I had to clean the entire inside of the dome as punishment.”

“I guess that just means we definitely aren't normal kids.”

He started to sift through the ashes of the house, but it was quickly apparent that it was of no use. They weren't going to find anything they could use there. Their lists and blueprints, Gage's notes—everything was gone. He sighed, staring at the clouds.

“You doing okay?” she asked.

“Yeah,” Alex said, but even he could hear that it wasn't a very convincing answer.

“Look, I'm not going to push you or anything, but I want you to know that what happened at the groundbreaking wasn't your fault, okay? It was an accident. We're practically in a war right now, Alex. I'm surprised none of us have been hurt more than we already have. And we . . . we never should have done things so quickly, without proof or knowing what Cloak was up to. You tried to stop us, but we were so sure that just having Lone Star and Lux back would fix everything that we ignored all the warning signs.”

“What if . . . ,” Alex started. “What if it wasn't an accident, though? What if it was my Cloak training, or something like that? I don't want it to happen again.”

“There,” Kirbie said, squinting her hazel eyes a little. “What you just said. Doesn't that prove you didn't mean for Phantom to really get hurt?”

“But—”

“I know you pretty well, Alex. I could tell you were one of the good guys when you didn't even know it yourself. If you wanted me to, I could talk for the next hour about how much I believe that what happened today wasn't on purpose, or how even if it was, it probably saved a ton of people in the long run and definitely helped us out, or how I'm pretty sure that Cloak wouldn't flinch if one of the Junior Rangers bit it in the middle of a fight—but I'm guessing this is all stuff you already know and don't want to hear me talk about. So instead, just know that all of us still trust you and everything. Nothing's changed.”

Alex stared at her, his mouth parted slightly. The blue tint of his vision had rolled away as she spoke, leaving her in full color.

“Please say something, or else I'm going to keep talking and end up feeling really dumb.”

“Thanks,” he said. “Really. I needed that.”

“Good.”

“Now we just have to figure out how to save the city. And how to get Lone Star back to being more of a superhero.”

“And if we can't do that, we'll defeat Cloak without him.”

“That's treasonous talk,” Alex said, though he wasn't sure if he was using the word “treasonous” correctly.

Kirbie shrugged. “I guess I've picked a few things up from you in the last few months, too.”

Alex started to respond defensively, but her smile stopped him.

“We should get back,” she said. “Is there anything else we need to do while we're here?”

“No,” Alex said. “I think we've gotten all we can from this place.”

 

They were halfway back home when Kirbie, in her bird form, jerked to the side suddenly, looping around and diving through a break in the clouds. Alex's feet flew back, his coat whipping around his legs. He was disoriented, hardly able to tell up from down as they plummeted toward the earth, landing on the top of some tall structure.

“What's going on?” Alex asked, getting to his feet, braced for an attack. He looked over the side of the roof. They appeared to be on top of a school auditorium.

“Don't you notice anything weird?” Kirbie asked. When it took Alex a moment to respond, she continued, “There aren't any lights on anywhere, Alex. It's a blackout.”

Of course. A darkness had settled on the city. For as far as Alex could see, there were no streetlamps on, no lights in the windows.

“This is crazy,” he said. “I guess my father might have been able to do something to the power grid. Or Photon could have—”

“Shhh,” she cut him off. Her features were shifting, changing, her ears pointing outward and hinting at transformation. “There's something happening over there.”

A block away, four Deputies were dragging a family out of their home. Dogs were barking. Alex could hear the family—a man and woman, a teenager, and two kids who looked much younger than Alex—all screaming and shouting. There were no police, no flashing lights. Only the Rangers' Deputies and a black paddy wagon.

“Crap,” Alex said. “What do you think it is?”

“I don't know. But if the Deputies are doing it, it can't be good, right?”

“How far are we from Carla's?”

“Far enough that they'd never be able to track us there,” Kirbie said. “What do you say? I could blow off some steam with a good fight right now.”

Alex didn't respond, but gave her a sly grin.

“Let's do some hero work.”

She transformed as she leaped into the air, swooped around, and then grabbed Alex, flying down the block. She released him with a pendulum swing of her talons, sending him rocketing toward one of the Deputies, a middle-aged man who never saw Alex coming. The boy's feet struck against the man's chest, sending him sailing backward through the air.

“Sorry to drop in on you.” Alex grinned.

“Seriously?” Kirbie asked, as she landed beside him. “
That's
your line?”

The remaining three Deputies—and the family—looked stunned for a moment, and Alex and Kirbie didn't give anyone time to make a move against them. A telekinetic blast knocked the wind out of a woman in blue and silver, while Kirbie took out a teenage girl who appeared to have the ability to produce strobe-light effects from her eyes. All of them were carrying Cloak-issue laser pistols.

That left only one Deputy. Alex sent a telekinetic bolt into the man's stomach, but he didn't budge. Kirbie rammed a shoulder into the man's back, to no effect. They continued trying to knock him down for a few more seconds, using a variety of powered and non-powered attacks. Finally Kirbie stopped.

“What are you?” she asked. “Some kind of human boulder?”

The man, who had appeared to be stunned into still silence throughout the attacks, spoke up.

“I have a very strong center of gravity.”

“That is
not
a superpower,” Alex said, and with a few stray thoughts, he had four laser pistols pointing at the man's head.

Kirbie turned to the family. They'd sent the two younger kids inside. A middle-aged man and woman stood on the lawn, in front of the teenage boy, whom they appeared to be hiding.

“What do you want?” the man asked.

“Want?” Kirbie was confused. “Just to stop whatever
they
were doing.”

“I know who you are,” the woman said. “You're criminals.”

“You have no idea,” Alex murmured.

“Why were they here?” Kirbie asked, ignoring her teammate.

“You can't have him!” the man said, taking a step forward.

Alex zeroed in on the still-standing Deputy. He tapped one of the guns against the man's forehead.

“What were you doing here?”

The Deputy stammered a bit before words finally came out.

“The kid's been drafted,” he said, his voice several pitches higher than it was before the four weapons were floating around him. “We had orders to collect him. The whole family if they gave us trouble. It's an honor to be wanted by the Rangers.”

Alex turned to the three civilians on the lawn, his face twisted in confusion.

“It was just a rumor,” the woman said. “Some kids at school made it up to give him trouble.”

“Did you call the police?” Kirbie asked.